Wherever you are in your career, you may be feeling the urge to shake things up.
This doesn’t always mean that you’re getting ready to quit your job and run off to the next opportunity.
Sometimes, taking the time to learn a new skill or improve your existing knowledge can fill the same void; plus, it’ll increase your chances of getting employed in the future!
If you’re considering using LinkedIn learning to kickstart your new learning journey, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best LinkedIn courses on the platform.
We hope you’ll see that there’s something for every industry and every skill set, regardless of your age or position in the company.
Without further ado, let’s explore the best LinkedIn learning courses below.
Become A Small Business Owner
Since the pandemic emerged, the global growth of entrepreneurship has been fuelled by a desire to be self-sufficient, free, and successful.
As a result, more and more small businesses are popping up at all corners of the globe, but for some, taking the leap into self-employment can be daunting.
For those in need of a helping hand, LinkedIn released its “become a small business owner” online course, which aims to help budding entrepreneurs learn everything they need to know about setting up their own business, with just ten hours of content.
This course walks its users through everything, from understanding a business’s legal and financial aspects to the operational side.
Users will learn how to build their own business models, develop a robust business plan, and establish their business as a legitimate identity.
The “become a small business owner” series includes 11 courses, including entrepreneurship foundations, finding and testing a business idea, creating a business plan, finance essentials, and many more.
For those with limited knowledge of starting up a business, we found this course was easy to understand and broken down into manageable chunks.
Each concept is explained in simple terms, and the content gradually gets more complex as the course progresses.
This is an excellent stepping stone for those wanting a greater insight into the small business world.
Pros
- There are ten hours of content covering different topics, and you can stop or start your learning at any time.
- The course includes a finance foundations module, showing budding entrepreneurs how to file their income taxes.
- Videos can be stopped and started at any time, and the information is explained in simple terms.
Cons
- The module on filing business taxes is only relevant to the US, which may restrict other learners.
- The final badge of completion isn’t accredited. Although it’ll look good on your resume, it has no real weight.
Learning Python
For those wanting to learn more about computer programming, building software, and building websites, one name will spring to mind – python.
In the tech industry, there’s a huge demand for job applicants to have the knowledge and hands-on experience with python, and for applicants, this can be a make or break feature in their applications.
With LinkedIn’s “learning python” course, users can gain some of the most basic skills and knowledge to run python, including how to install it, python syntax, and how to run python programs (find out more about LinkedIn Learning here).
This course even shows users how to work with dates and times in python, with further help on retrieving and parsing JSON, HTML, and more from the web.
What’s more, users will receive a shareable certificate on completion of the course, which can be displayed on their LinkedIn profile.
This is ideal for learners looking for accreditation that they can easily show off to prospective employers.
Although we found this course incredibly informative, we felt it was a little too challenging for beginners.
Although this course is marketed as ‘beginner friendly’, we’d advise taking another, simpler, python course before embarking on this course.
Pros
- This course is highly informative, and it walks its learners through some of the most important aspects of python, including installation and how to run python programs.
- Learners receive a certificate to display to employers, which shows they are competent at using python.
Cons
- Although this course does discuss beginner aspects of python, such as installation, we found that most of the content was too challenging for complete beginners. However, some topics aren’t covered at the sort of depth required for beginners to understand.
- The course is only three hours long. For such a complex course targeted at beginners, we would expect to see more learning time.
Develop Your Marketing Skills
Marketing is one of the most in-demand jobs out there.
More and more people are looking to break out of their current roles and take on the marketing world, whatever their background.
It’s possible to land a career in marketing without a marketing-specific degree, too, which makes this field even more attractive for those looking to shake up their career path.
LinkedIn’s “develop your marketing skills” course is perfect for beginners and those with a slight knowledge of the marketing world who want to continue progressing.
The “develop your marketing skills” courses teach students the basics of digital marketing, help them develop their social media marketing skills, and help them identify new opportunities for online marketing.
There are a total of nine courses and fourteen hours worth of content, which cover topics such as Google Analytics, the foundations of content marketing, marketing tools and services for beginners, and more.
At the end of the courses, students will receive a badge of completion to show off their new knowledge and skills.
Although this course would be suitable for beginners, we feel that to get the best experience, learners should have some base knowledge of marketing before pursuing the course.
However, some concepts can be challenging to understand with not enough explanation.
Thankfully, these videos can be stopped and started at any time, so there’s always the opportunity to research challenging topics before taking the final test.
Pros
- There is a range of comprehensive topics that cover marketing concepts of multiple difficulties. These include Google Analytics and the foundations of social media marketing, which talks about how to leverage platforms, build brand awareness, and more.
- Like most other LinkedIn courses, you’ll get a badge of completion to demonstrate your participation once you’ve finished the course.
Cons
- Some concepts are too challenging for complete beginners to grasp, and as the course progresses, more in-depth topics aren’t explained as simply.
Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
LinkedIn’s “developing your emotional intelligence” course has fast become one of the platform’s most popular learning courses.
First released in 2017, this course gives students the opportunity to learn how to develop their emotional intelligence and use it in the workplace to build effective and healthy relationships.
This course is suitable for almost all fields and all employees, regardless of their position in the organization.
Throughout the course, instructor Gemma Roberts helps students develop their self-awareness and explains, in simple terms, what it means to have emotional intelligence.
By becoming more self-aware, students can learn how to identify any triggers for their behavior – especially those that can affect workplace performance.
The course also teaches students how to build strong relationships by focusing on, and establishing, behavioral intentions.
Like most other Linkedin courses, learners will gain a shareable certificate to show their participation in the course.
We found that because this course is so easy to follow, there’s no requirement for students to have any prior understanding of emotional intelligence or how it works.
Students can learn how to manage relationships, build social awareness, and more, all while practicing they learn with exercise files and quizzes.
Pros
- This course isn’t relevant to just one industry, so it can be taken by people working in almost any field and at any position within the company.
- You’ll gain a shareable certificate at the end of the course to show you’ve completed your learning.
- Because this course is about a human concept rather than a skill in a specific industry, there’s no need to have any prior knowledge of emotional intelligence before taking this course.
Cons
- This course is only an hour long. Although this is enough time to understand the basic concepts of emotional intelligence, some students may have appreciated the extra time learning.
SEO Foundations
Whether you’re a new or established business, a content or copywriter, or a digital marketer, SEO is a valuable skill with endless benefits.
SEO is also one of the most in-demand skills at the moment, with more and more learners looking for courses to help them grasp the basics and improve their career prospects.
LinkedIn’s SEO foundations course is simple, accessible, and suitable for employees working in multiple industries.
In the SEO foundations course, students can learn some of the basics of SEO, including how rankings affect businesses, to more complex aspects such as conducting keyword research, building links, optimizing pages, and measuring success.
The course even teaches its students how to build their own long-term SEO strategy.
This is all essential knowledge for those wanting to improve their skills or start a new career in SEO.
Like all other courses, you’ll receive a certificate that can be shared on your LinkedIn profile and even your resume to show off your new skills in SEO to prospective employers.
We found this course to be suitable for beginners and more advanced students.
So, whether you have no prior SEO experience or know a few basics, this course will be suitable for you.
Pros
- The course is accessible and fun and covers the fundamentals of SEO, from the basics to the more advanced concepts. This makes it the ideal course for complete beginners and those with some prior knowledge and experience.
- You’ll get a shareable certificate that can help you stand out in your industry.
Cons
- Some aspects of the course feel rushed, and complete beginners may need to do their own research to understand more challenging concepts, such as how to perform keyword research.
The Best LinkedIn Courses Buyers Guide: Here’s What You Need To Know
Wherever you are in your career or your learning journey, starting a new course can be daunting.
Although LinkedIn courses aren’t as long or as extensive as taking a college course or gaining a degree, there’s still a level of study and commitment required.
For this reason, it’s normal to wonder whether a course is right for you.
If you’re struggling to know where to start with LinkedIn courses or want to know more about the benefits of starting, we’ve put together this buyer’s guide to help you make the right decision.
The Benefits Of LinkedIn Courses
LinkedIn has just over 16,000 courses available on its platform – yes, 16,000! With so many courses to choose from, you’re bound to find one to suit your industry.
Even if you feel like you’re a competent employee with little left to learn, gaining an extra accreditation can help demonstrate your commitment to your job, which looks great on your resume.
Not only will this stand out to future employers, but it will impress your current employer, too.
What’s more, all LinkedIn courses are completed remotely and in your own time.
This means you won’t have to take any unpaid time away from work to complete your course, and you can make your learning journey fit your current lifestyle.
LinkedIn also recognizes that choosing a new course can be confusing and frustrating.
That’s why LinkedIn will recommend courses to you based on your skills, industry, and experiences.
So, you won’t have to sift through all 16,000 courses to find the right one for you – LinkedIn’s course curation is there to help.
How LinkedIn Courses Are Structured?
Because your LinkedIn learning experience is all remote, you’ll have plenty of online resources to help you complete your course.
No matter what course you’re enrolled in, you can expect to watch plenty of videos with the player, take quizzes, complete worksheets, and more.
You can watch your courses on mobile or desktop, and you can even download videos to watch offline for when you’re on the go.
There’s even a specific section of the Linkedin learning website dedicated to keeping track of your courses and your progress.
If you have the time to enroll in more than one course, you can dip in and out of your learning directly from this page and track your progress for each course.
LinkedIn also makes it easy to make time for learning.
For example, LinkedIn recognizes that most people taking its courses are already working and may be stuck for time.
That’s why video content is kept to a minimum where possible, with some videos being just three minutes long.
You can even take a time management course with LinkedIn to learn how to fit your study around your job and gain extra skills and accreditations while still performing optimally at work.
Is LinkedIn Learning Worth It?
Although you’ll have to pay to access LinkedIn learning, you’ll get access to over 16,000 courses. Let that sink in. The possibilities are endless.
What’s more, you can do all of your studying around your job and completely remotely, and you can take as many courses as you like at one time.
Whether you want to enhance your skills in your current job or break into a new career, there’s so much you can do with LinkedIn Learning.
All the courses are run by industry professionals and qualified instructors, too, so you’ll always be getting the most up-to-date, professional advice and course materials.
When you subscribe to LinkedIn Learning, you’ll also get a free LinkedIn premium subscription.
This will give you access to even more great features on the platform, including more metrics, the ability to message people outside of your immediate connections, profile views, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Get A Job With LinkedIn Learning?
Although a LinkedIn certificate doesn’t have the same weight as a college or university degree, research suggests that those with a LinkedIn learning certificate have a 9% higher chance of getting a job than those who don’t.
Can I Put A LinkedIn Certification On Resume?
Yes, you can put your LinkedIn certificate on your resume! However, certificates should always be placed at the bottom of your resume.
However, not every industry will need you to display certificates on your resume, so check before adding them on.
How Long Does It Take To Do A LinkedIn Learning Course?
The length of LinkedIn learning courses can vary, anywhere from one hour to twenty-seven hours.
It depends on the complexity of the course and how much of the learning path you’re completing.
The Bottom Line
With more of us looking for remote learning opportunities to boost our skills and improve our career prospects, Linkedin learning has become a popular tool for employees and students worldwide.
Although LinkedIn learning comes at a cost, you’ll get access to over 16,000 courses!
We’ve only included five on this list to give you an idea of the various courses available
So if you want to explore more learning opportunities from LinkedIn, we’d advise you to look at their learning section for more information.
